Tuesday, 30 December 2014

We are, apparently, slap bang in the middle of what some
call Merryneum. That post Christmas period when we’ve had our fill of pud,
turkey leftovers and the sales and we’re girding our loins for the New Year’s
Eve revelries and the return to work. It’s also a time for reflection on the
past year, the highlights and the lowlights, the good and the bad.

As usual there are a smattering of review programmes in the
current national radio schedules. I’ve spotted BBC Radio 4’s News Review of the Year with Sarah
Montague hash-tagging the year and Pick of the Year with Lynne Truss. On Radio 5 Live there’s Chris Warburton’s
news and sports highlights in5 Live in Short and the excellent RadioReview of the Year with Jane Garvey and
Stephanie Hurst. On the World Service you can hear highlights from across the
language services in The Fifth Floor.

But on the RRJ blog I like to dip into the archive and so
its not the last twelve months I’m remembering but the events on 1982 when for
much of the year the focus in the UK was on a forgotten group of islands in the
South Atlantic.News Review of the Year 1982 is presented by one of the BBC's then foreign correspondents, David McNeil. It was produced by John Allen and broadcast on Radio 4 on Sunday 26 December 1982.

This edition of Year
Ending went out at 11.15 p.m. on New Year’s Eve (and no repeat) so goodness
knows how many people heard it at the time. The BBC don’t have a copy but home
recordings exist including this one from my archive.

Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Yes once again I crank up the Lunewyre technology to bring
you this 1996 Christmas Day special hosted by Kid Tempo and The Ginger Prince for
what was to be their last outing on BBC Radio 1.

May I wish a very Happy Christmas to all readers of the blog
and offer particular thanks to all those that have kindly offered feedback,
information and old recordings. I’ll be back with some year-end specials next
week.

Tuesday, 23 December 2014

What was big and holy and appeared at Christmas? Answer: Simon Mayo’s Big Holy Christmas show on
Radio 1. It was a seasonal version of the station’s mid-90s “irreligious
religious” programme that was, according to Robert Hanks of The Times, “light on religion and heavy
on the Mayo.”
The three Christmas Eve editions of Simon Mayo’s Big Holy Christmas in 1993, 1994 and 1995 are perhaps
best remembered for the renditions of well-known Christmas carols in the hands
of some unlikely pop stars. In this (edited) edition from 24 December 1994
you’ll hear Sparks perform Little Drummer
Boy, Sandie Shaw attempts Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer, Squeeze with I
Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday, Donna Summer sings I’ll Be Home For Christmas and finally a
specially composed, and untitled, tune from The Beautiful South.

Monday, 22 December 2014

For radio fans here’s the perfect gift, the Radio 1 diary, available
at all good stockists.

This is the cover for the 1980 diary published by WM Collins
and bought, no doubt, at WH Smith’s in Hull’s Prospect Centre. There are
articles on Radio 1 in the eighties, How Hits are Made and biographies of the
Radio 1 DJ line-up, from Bates to Vance. We also get a Pocket Disctionary (sic), an A to Z of all you need to know about
the studio equipment and “deejay’s jargon” starting at “AM” stopping off at headings
such as “Cartridges” “Quad” and “Turntables” and ending at “Zero Level”.

For the serious radio enthusiast who eschewed the fripperies
of the nation’s favourite station there was always the Radio Diary. Again published by Collins, this (above) is my 1977 edition. This
was aimed at the radio engineers with pages of features on transmitters, powers
supplies and semi-conductor devices.

Friday, 12 December 2014

Broadcaster Mark Whittaker worked across a number of BBC
radio stations for just over thirty years. A “thoroughly professional,
thoughtful and clear broadcaster” who was, by all accounts great fun to work
with.

After training as a newspaper journalist Mark joined BBC
Lancashire in 1983 before moving to BBC WM and then a long stint on Radio 1’s Newsbeat. In 1994 he was in the original
line-up at BBC Radio 5 Live co-presenting a weekend show with Liz Kershaw (photo left).
Moving to Radio 4 he hosted Costing the
Earth and You and Yours. More
recently he was a presenter on the World Service programmes World Business Report and Business Matters. Mark died on 1 October
only a month after his final broadcast.

By way of a tribute this is Mark on Radio 1 in 1997
investigating the music business and the ways in which it could guarantee
itself hits. Hyping the Hits was
broadcast on a Sunday evening (23 February) immediately after Mark Goodier’s
chart rundown.

Friday, 5 December 2014

Two of the most popular radio comedies of the late 70s and
early 80s were Listen to Les (74-85) and Castle’s on the Air (74-83). Both Radio 2 shows
came from the BBC’s Manchester comedy outpost under the stewardship of James
Casey.

Occasionally the two stars, Les Dawson and Roy Castle, would
come together for ‘Laughalong’ specials.
This is one such seasonal offering from
1982. Joining them are Castle’s radio sidekick Eli Woods, who’d also co-starred
alongside Dawson on his YTV series Sez
Les, and Daphne Oxenford who was a regular on Listen to Les. The music is provided by Brian Fitzgerald and his
Orchestra.

The Christmas Laughalong
was broadcast on Friday 24 December 1982.

When I dug out the Laughalong
tape on the other side was The
Grumbleweeds Christmas Party. However, containing copious amounts of Savile
impressions and a guest appearance from Stuart Hall that particular show won’t
get a release anytime soon.

Wednesday, 3 December 2014

There are a number of so-called “lost gems of the Light
Programme and Home Service” airing on Radio 4 Extra over Christmas. As ever it’s
great when the BBC dusts off (one somehow imagines the reels sitting on dusty
old shelves rather than the temperature-controlled reality) these old comedy
shows. All but one, the edition of Up the
Pole, have not been heard on the radio in decades. And two really were “lost”
as they come from off-air recordings provided by the Goon Show Preservation
Society.

This is what’s on offer in the week commencing 22 December 2014:

Over the Garden Wall
was a Light Programme comedy in 1948/9 starring Lancastrian comic Norman Evans
in which he brought his variety stage act of Fanny the garrulous gossip to the
radio. His co-star was Ethel Manners (of the musical hall act Hatton and
Manners) who played Mrs Higginbottom.

A Date with Nurse
Dugdale was a six-part series that ran in 1944 starring Arthur Marshall as
the eponymous Nurse Dugdale with her catchphrase “Out of my way deahs, out of
my way instantly!” It was spin-off
from the series Take It From Here, not
the long-running Muir/Norden creation but an earlier 1943/44 series. Both Take It From Here and the Nurse Dugdale
programmes also featured the May Fair Hotel Dance Orchestra conducted by
bandleader and later renowned-DJ Jack Jackson.

Up the Pole ran
for four series between 1947 and 1952 and starred Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss
initially playing the cross-talking proprietors of a trading post in the
Arctic. Later series shifted the action an apartment in a disused power station
and a rural police station. Only one edition survives, from 1 November 1948,
but has been heard again as part of Bill Oddie’s turn on Radio 7 and Radio 4
Extra as The Comedy Controller.

It’s Great to Be Young
was Ken Dodd’s first starring programme and ran between October
1958 and January 1961. It’s the one that gave rise to Doddy’s catchphrase
“Where’s me shirt?” and co-starred impressionist Peter Goodwright.

Blackpool Night
was a regular summer series of variety shows that ran from 1948 to 1967. It
gave early radio appearances for Ken Dodd and Morecambe and Wise and its Eric
and Ernie that star in this repeat from 18 August 1963.

The Naughty Navy Show
was a one-off Home Service comedy from Christmas Day 1965 written by and
starring Spike Milligan along with John Bird, Bernard Miles and Bob Todd.

Sid and Dora was
another one-off show from 25 December 1965, this time over on the Light
Programme. Described as a ‘domestic comedy for Christmas’ it starred Sid James,
Dora Bryan and Pat Coombs.

The Army Show also
stars Spike Milligan and shares cast members with The Naughty Navy Show as well as Barry Humphries and Q series regular John Bluthal. The show
was first broadcast on 16 June 1965 and has only been repeated once, and that
was in 1966.

There’s more Milligan in the The GPO Show from Christmas Day 1964. The Radio Times unhelpfully
describes it as follows: “Spike Milligan takes a benevolent but distinctly
Milligoonish look at the work of that mighty institution the British Post
Office. In fact he braves the hallowed precincts of Mount Pleasant itself, to
report the merry, festive scene. With the stalwart shape of Harry Secombe and
John Bluthal, to name but six, he will be giving listeners a seasonal view of
Operation Mailbag in full swing.”The GPO Show was recorded just five days
before transmission and by then the Post Office had objected to the title on
the grounds that GPO was a registered trademark so it was hastily changed to The Grand Piano Orchestra Show. The
script, in part, was a re-working of an earlier Goon Show from 1954 titled The
History of Communications.

And finally also worth mentioning, and of more recent
vintage, is a repeat of the 2008 Archive
Hour feature on Kenny Everett from music journalist Mark Paytress in Here’s Kenny.

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About Me

Hailing originally from Hull and spending most of my life in East Yorkshire I'm now resident in France.
For over 30 years I've been interested in radio, tv and film and have an archive of off-air recordings and radio-related material.
I'm not the Andy Walmsley that designs sets or produces tv programmes.
Professionally I worked in Local Government.
My wife Val works for Beaux Villages Immobilier.